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Direct microscopic observation of the isothermal bainite evolution in terms of nucleation events, the location of the nuclei, as well as their growth is very valuable for the refinement of models predicting the kinetics of bainite transformation. To this aim, the microstructural evolution in a Fe-0.2C-1.5Mn-2.0Cr alloy during isothermal bainite formation at temperatures between 723 K and 923 K is monitored in situ using high temperature laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM). Both the nucleation and the growth kinetics of the bainitic plates are analyzed quantitatively. Bainitic plates are observed to nucleate on three different types of locations in the grain: at austenitic grain boundaries, on newly-formed bainite plates and at unspecific sites within the austenite grains. Grain boundary nucleation is observed to be the dominant nucleation mode at all transformation temperatures. The rate of nucleation is found to vary markedly between different austenite grains. The temperature dependence of the average bainite nucleation rate is in qualitative agreement with the classical nucleation theory. Analysis of plate growth reveals that also the lengthening rates of bainite plates differ strongly between different grains. However, the lengthening rates do not seem to be related to the type of nucleation site. Analysis of the temperature dependence of the growth rate shows that the lengthening rates at high temperatures are in line with a diffusional model when a growth barrier of 400 J mol −1 is considered.

A comparison between slow heating to aging temperature and direct charging at aging temperature on the microstructure and mechanical properties obtained after the aging was established for the metastable beta (β) titanium alloy Ti-15V-3Cr-3Al-3Sn. The alloy was subjected to two single aging (SA) and two duplex aging (DA) conditions, with two heating rates to aging temperature: (i) low heating rate of 5 oC/min (ii) direct charging into a furnace heated to aging temperature. The microstructure analysis was carried out using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy. Mechanical Testing was carried to evaluate Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS), 0.2% Yield Strength (YS), % Elongation (%El.), % Reduction in area (%RA) and hardness. In the case of SA samples aged at 500 °C for 8 h and 500 °C for 10 h, heating rate of 5 °C/min to aging temperature resulted in a finer microstructure but did not help in achieving better strength-ductility combination compared to direct charging. Lower rate of heating allows enough dwell time in the temperature range 250-300 oC for pre-precipitation reaction to occur which aids in fine scale precipitation of alpha phase during aging. In the case of DA samples aged at 250 oC for 24 h followed by 500 oC for 8 h and 300 oC for 10 h followed by 500 oC for 10 h, no tangible difference between lower rate of heating and direct charging was observed in mechanical properties or microstructure. This is believed to be due to the pre-aging steps 250 oC/24 h or 300 oC/10h in the two DA treatments, which create finely distributed precursors thereby leaving no scope for the heating rate to play a role.

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Corrosion inhibiting conversion coating formation is triggered by the activity of micro-galvanic couples in the microstructure and subsequent local increase in pH at cathodic sites, which in the case of aluminium alloys are usually intermetallics. Ceria coatings are formed spontaneously upon immersion of aluminium alloys in a cerium conversion coating solution, the high pH gradient in the vicinity of intermetallics drives the local precipitation of ceria conversion compounds. Cu-rich intermetallics demonstrate a highly cathodic nature and have shown the local precipitation reaction to occur readily. Fe-rich intermetallics are, however, weaker cathodes and have shown varied extents of localized deposits and are in focus in the current work. Model cast Al-7wt.%Si alloys have been designed with 1 wt.% Fe, solidified at different cooling rates to achieve two different microstructures, with big and small intermetallics, respectively. Upon subjecting the two microstructures to the same conversion coating treatment (immersion in a 0.1 M CeCl3 solution) for a short period of 2 h, preferential heavy deposition on the boundaries of the big intermetallics and light deposition on the small intermetallics was observed. Based on these observations, a mechanism of localized coating initiation at these Fe-rich intermetallic particles (IM) is proposed.